In the Generation I and II games and their remakes, wild Snorlax can be found sleeping in inconvenient locations throughout Kanto. In order to catch one, a Trainer must first awaken it with music from either a Poké Flute or Pokégear set to the Poké Flute channel. A sleeping Snorlax makes a return in Pokémon X and Y, in which it is blocking the player's way on Route 7.

Biology

Snorlax is a huge, bipedal, dark blue-green Pokémon with a cream-colored face, belly, and feet. Its body is composed of mostly its belly, where most of its fat reserves accumulate. Its head is large, with small, pointed ears and two pointed teeth protruding from its lower jaw. It has large, hind feet with three claws and a circular brown paw pad, and its arms and five foreclaws are short.

Snorlax is often found in mountains and forests. It wakes up only to eat and seldom for exercises. It is not a picky eater, as its strong stomach allows it to eat even moldy food without feeling any ill effects, even being able to handle Muk's poison. When hungry, it is not satisfied until it consumes 900 lbs. (400 kg) of food, and can eat in its sleep. Snorlax is docile enough to let children and small Pokémon bounce on its large stomach.

In The Garden of Eatin', a Snorlax was causing trouble for a man named Marcel by eating the bananas in his Slakoth Banana Garden. Marcel's newly evolved Vigoroth defeated the Snorlax, allowing him to capture it. Afterwards, Marcel made an attraction around his new Snorlax: a relaxation room.

A Snorlax appeared in PK13, in which it ate Corphish's bananas that were on sale.

In Pokémon Origins

Red encountered a Snorlax in File 3: Giovanni by playing the Poké Flute. He was able to catch it and later used it in his Gym battle against Giovanni, where it was quickly defeated by Giovanni's Rhyhorn's Horn Drill.

Snorlax does the same maneuver as it did in the previous game, but covers a smaller area.

Snorlax is also a Poké Float. It is lying down asleep and so fighting occurs on its head and belly.

Melee trophy information

Snorlax love to sleep and love to eat: these portly Pokémon get grumpy if they don't get 888 pounds of food per day. After snacking out, they always nap. They have cast-iron stomachs and can eat moldy and even rotten food with no digestion problems. They are the heaviest Pokémon on record, weighing in at over 1,000 pounds.

Brawl trophy information

"A Sleeping Pokémon. It's the ultimate loafer. Sometimes children like to play on top its big belly. Once in a slumber, not even the hardest rain or the fiercest wind will wake it. Snorlax recovers health and restores its physical state by sleeping, and it proves daunting with its damaging Snore attack. Snorlax is the king of Sleeping Pokémon."

Snorlax reappears as a Poké Ball summon in these games, behaving the same way as before.

Trophy information

NA: This sleepy, Normal-type Pokémon is huge! It eats more than 900 lb. of food every day. Most of the time not spent eating is spent sleeping. That big, round body comes in handy when it's brought onto a Smash Bros. battlefield—the Body Slam attack will send anyone who gets hit flying into the air!

PAL: Snorlax is often referred to as the Sleeping Pokémon, and there's a good reason for that! This giant loafer spends almost all its time snoozing, getting up for just long enough each day to scoff up a tidy 400kg of food. In this game, it soars into the air and uses its Body Slam attack, smacking into fighters like a giant wrecking ball.

Game data

NPC appearances

Pokémon Ranger: Snorlax will be seen sleeping throughout the game, effectively cutting off certain areas until later on. It will eventually remain in a cave in the Sekra Range. Once the rest of the Ranger Browser has been completed, it will wake up and can be captured.

Trivia

In HeartGold and SoulSilver, if the player interacts with a Snorlax that is walking with them while at Mt. Silver, the message "SNORLAX is feeling very eager" will appear. This is due to Red, who is also at Mt. Silver, owning a Snorlax as well. While the player is on Mt. Silver, unique messages will also appear if the player interacts with a walking Pikachu or Charizard.

Snorlax has the highest base stat total of all Pokémon that can hatch from an Egg.

Origin

Snorlax may be loosely based on hibernatingbears or teddy bears. It may also be based on the cave bear. It may also be based on a food coma, as it eats large quantities of food, then takes a nap (symptoms of a food coma). Snorlax also shares traits with sloths, who are often portrayed as lazy and sleepy creatures.

Name origin

Snorlax is a combination of snore and lax or relax.

Kabigon may come from an alternate reading of sleep, 寐 bi, and a corruption of 鼾酔 kansui (snoring) or 憩う ikou (rest). It may also incorporate 黴 kabi (mold), noting the fact that Snorlax will eat anything, even moldy food. Kabigon is also based on the nickname of Game Freak programmer Kōji Nishino, which is the reason his game appearance uses Snorlax as his highest-leveled Pokémon in Black 2 and White 2.

In other languages

Language

Title

Meaning

Japanese

カビゴン Kabigon

Kabigon may come from an alternate reading of sleep, 寐 bi, and a corruption of 鼾酔 kansui or 憩う ikou.